


Thin Walls

by minzimpression



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 02:58:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17133752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minzimpression/pseuds/minzimpression
Summary: The story of how Kylo Ren falls in love with a ginger. And later, with his annoying neighbor.





	Thin Walls

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the kbb! I had the honor to work with the wonderful [pangolinpirate](https://pangolinpirate.tumblr.com/)! who not only was very patient with me but also provided this story with the most beautiful artwork! thank you so much <3
> 
> also merry christmas, part two will follow.

Kylo dropped the last box to the ground and groaned. He stretched, hearing his spine pop and gave the box in front of him a gentle kick. _Living room_ was scrawled on it. It had been the last moving box. He couldn’t believe that he had actually made it. He’d not only moved into a better neighborhood, no, he’d bought this apartment. Like a real functional adult. Taking a loan, complete with equity capital. He’d worked hard and had denied himself many things in the past years so he could save money for this, his own home. Finally out of the shared apartment with Rey and Poe, and straight into the real world. 

What a fucking good feeling. 

Take that mother and your _Psychology? Really? You don’t even keep yourself in check most of the time._

She might have been right about the latter thing, but it had been a very interesting major, helping Kylo with _some_ of his own issues. And when his cousin Rey had told him dryly he should take anger management classes when he’d thrown his phone against the wall and broken it, he’d finally had the genius idea how he’d earn money in the future.

_Anger management therapist._

And the business boomed. It boomed so well that Kylo was finally here, at the pinnacle of his dreams, his cherry on top, his final win over his doubtful mother. Screw that he didn’t follow his own rules — _the_ failsafe concept as to how to get rid of anger in five minutes — He made it to this point alone. His own crib, mostly calm, and with a steady income.

He looked around his living room, surveying the wide window front, complete with a balcony, and turned around to look at his kitchen. He grinned like an idiot, and walked through the door that led to his bedroom. He threw himself onto the bed there, hoping he’d find his bedding in the chaos of boxes in the living room, and closed his eyes for a moment. The whole day had been extremely annoying. Moving was tiring.  
He stared at the open door of his bathroom and decided a hot shower was exactly what he needed. And after that, he’d have a nice coffee. To brighten up his spirits and get his tired body back into the mood of unpacking the boxes. So, with great effort and determination, he got up and walked back to the kitchen. He found his coffee machine in one of the three _kitchen_ boxes and because he was a smart man he’d packed the coffee itself into the same box. He happily plugged in his coffee machine, filled it with water and ground coffee and punched the ‘brew’ button. Kylo then walked to into the living room and made a face. He had no idea where he’d packed the two towels he possessed (one was bright purple and belonged to Poe actually). He didn’t find his nice pilfered bath towels but he did locate an ugly guest towel, still in its wrapping which he’d got from his mother once upon a time. He couldn’t even remember. He unpacked it and held it in front of him. It was way too tiny, but it was still warm outside so he just would have to dab himself dry and the warm air would do the rest. 

He draped the towel over his shoulder and strode to the bathroom where he stepped out of his sweaty clothes and under the shower. The water pressure was heavenly and the water turned hot so much quicker than in his old apartment where Poe and Rey always used up all the hot water leaving Kylo with the lukewarm leftovers because he’d lost rock paper scissors once again.

But now, he stood here, decent hot water prattling down his skin. He hadn’t found his shower gel yet, so he just showered with water, scrubbing everything with his hands. He already felt refreshed when he stepped out of the shower and managed to towel himself _mostly_ dry with the sad excuse of a towel. He wiped the mirror with his hand, carded his fingers through his hair to detangle the knotted strands. Kylo wrestled with the tiny towel, attempting to wrap it around his hips, huffing when he he’d finally managed to make it stay. He walked to the kitchen, filled himself a mug that proclaimed _Yeah, I’m a pacifist, I’m about to pass a fist across your face_ after finding his mug collection, and sat down on a box, blowing over the hot surface of the liquid black gold. Everything settled. Calmness, relaxation. He almost could hear angel choirs in his head.

The box underneath him gave a horrible cracking sound and he spilled half of the coffee onto his bare torso when he suddenly slumped down into the opened hole of the box, right onto a few stacked plates. 

Well, it fucking figured that he’d sit down onto the dishes box and the lid of the box would fucking sag. 

The coffee burned his skin and he bit his lower lip, not crying out but it was a damn near thing. 

“Fucking hell,” he cursed and got up from the ruined box. He set the half empty mug onto the counter and went to the sink. Kylo opened the tap, turning it to cold and wiped the coffee from his torso with his bare hands, all the while glaring at the offending box on the floor. 

When he was done, he looked down at the few red spots on his skin with a frown on his face and drank the rest of the coffee while standing and vowed not to let this little accident to worsen his mood. He filled his cup with coffee once again, and marched over to the large balcony doors. There was a nice whiff of fresh air when he slid the door open and he stepped out onto his moderately sized balcony. It was still warm enough that he didn’t feel cold out here, the stone floor of the balcony still warm from being heated by the sun the whole day. Kylo looked down, wiggling his toes, and then back up, enjoying the view of his neighborhood. It wasn’t a busy street down there. The main street was on the other side of the building. When he leaned over the edge of the handrail and looked down, he could see a few pedestrians, many cyclists and a few cars parked along the curb. It was a nice small and quiet , and opposite of the apartment building was a little park. So yes, Kylo had also paid for the view. 

_Perfect_ , he thought, sipping his coffee. 

“Ahem.”

Kylo stopped mid sip and turned toward the sound. The balcony on his right was occupied. A man sat there, hair so _orange_ that Kylo was sure it must have been an optical illusion from the slowly setting sun. The man looked annoyed. Kylo could see that he had a big sketchpad in front of him on a small table and a pencil in his hand.

 

“You’re blocking my view.”

Kylo turned to look behind him but he couldn’t see anything interesting. Just more houses, the beginnings of the inner-city and the street. He turned back to the man — his neighbor most probably — and smirked. He raised his hand with the cup in greeting.

“Hi,” he said. “My name is Kylo. I just moved in here.”

The man frowned and then got up from his chair, grabbed the sketchpad, pressed it to his chest. “I don’t care,” he told Kylo, and disappeared inside his own apartment and Kylo heard the sliding door close . 

“Charming,” Kylo muttered. He looked at his cup of coffee and then at the other balcony again because there was an indignant _meow_. He could see a giant ginger cat with long fur standing in front of the door, clearly displeased. The door opened again, the cat strutted inside and the door was shut again.

Okay.

Weird.

Kylo sipped his coffee, shrugged, and walked back inside his own apartment again. He put the cup in the sink and then went to find some fresh clothes to put on. After he was dressed in sweats and an old tshirt, he started unpacking his boxes. He hoped his motivation would carry on for a few more days. Because he wouldn’t put it past himself to just do a half assed job and then live with boxes inside the apartment for two years. 

After he plugged his phone into the charger and started his _moving mix_ which consisted of hard guitar riffs and screaming only, he started to unpack everything for the kitchen, taking care of his idiotic mug collection. He had no idea why he’d started collecting the stupidest mugs he could find. By now it was a tradition that his friends and family tried to outdo themselves by giving him the best worst cups and mugs for his birthdays or Christmas. So far, Rey was definitely leading Kylo’s internal scoreboard, but he never expected anything less from his cousin.

He didn’t have many kitchen boxes. His cutlery and plates and a few glasses were stowed away rather quickly. After that followed the few cans and packaged goods, and that was it. He definitely needed to shop for groceries tomorrow. He continued with the bedroom then, kicking three big bags of clothes into the closet, too lazy now to sort them now. He only put two of his suits and three dress shirts onto the hangers. The rest could wait for when he was in the mood to sort out his closet. He found his bedding, sheets, and made his new bed up so he could fall into a ready bed later. He kept his bedroom as it was and moved on to the living room. But when he stood there, surrounded by boxes he remembered that he didn’t have any furniture yet. The only furnished room had been the kitchen. And he’d brought his bed and mattress from the old apartment. 

But elsewise, it was empty.

“Well, fuck me,” he muttered. He looked at his watch and saw that it was too late to actually make his way to IKEA or wherever to get some shit. 

Ugh.

He turned off the music on his phone to look up places that offered take-out, and decided for good old pizza. He called the place, was promised that the pizza would be ready in thirty minutes, and spent his waiting time sitting on the floor an scrolling through the IKEA website, marking different things for later. 

His doorbell rang twenty minutes later and he buzzed the pizza guy up. He almost collided with his ginger neighbor when he opened his door. The man frowned at him when Kylo stepped out to greet the pizza boy. Kylo could see that his neighbor had his own bag of take-away in his hand. It smelled heavenly, probably Thai, and Kylo regretted his pizza decision immediately.

“Is that any good?” He asked. “Do you recommend the place? What’s it called?”

“I am pretty sure our tastes are vastly different,” came the snide answer and before Kylo could react to that, his neighbor unlocked his door and vanished inside and the delivery guy came up the stairs with Kylo’s pizza. Kylo tipped him well because he knew the hard life of being a delivery guy, and walked back inside, grateful that he’d ordered a beer too even though the price of it was way too much. He sat down on the floor again, not trusting the moving boxes anymore, and had a night feast with really great pizza and a beer that he’d never have chosen if he were in a store, but good enough to end a tiring moving day. 

He sat down onto the plain floor this time, not trying any moving boxes to sit on, and enjoyed his pizza. 

He turned in early that night, knowing that this moving-in business would take a few more days at least.

* * *

In the end, he needed almost five months until he unpacked the last box, which wasn’t even _that bad_ since during his last move, he’d managed to still have unopened boxes after two years.

Nevertheless, this move was way quicker than the one before and Kylo was a responsible adult now. He wanted to have a nice finished apartment so he could relax after a long day of work. Dreadful days of listening to angry patients and how they conveniently forgot all of his _certified_ methods to control their anger.

He would long have changed his job, if there weren’t people who paid him his obnoxious demand per hour. It _did_ pay the bills very well after all, so well that he had this nice apartment he really liked. Really, _really/em > liked. The commute was reasonable, the area was nice and he was actually making use of his balcony. He’d started to try a bit of balcony gardening. Granted, 60% of his experiments always ended dried out, dead, rottened. But he was getting there. He even considered getting a tiny greenhouse for the balcony, so he could dry and grow plants during winter which was quickly approaching. Gardening was calming. Calming his mind. He was slowly considering maybe putting this into his therapy program._

Another reason for getting a little greenhouse was that nothing seemed to grow . He planted things and when he checked on them a day later, sometimes the seeds lay bare again, or the flower bulbs were lying on the floor and not in the expensive jardiniers he’d invested in. It was annoying, because he couldn’t figure out the reason. He couldn’t be _that_ bad at gardening that the plants didn’t want to grow with him, _for_ him; that they’d rather commit suicide than flourish under Kylo’s clumsy but determined care. So yes, protecting them from the harsh weather to come, and protecting them from the culprit.

A culprit that was not a bird. Kylo tried to watch his garden every now and then and the few birds that got lost on the handrail of his balcony definitely weren’t picking out his flower bulbs.

But apart from his problematic garden which was seriously threatening his zen sometimes, he was content for once with his job and with his life in general. Fine, he could do with a bit more sex. No, he was really on a dry spell by now, but it wasn’t _his_ fault. This city just didn’t have the men he wanted. 

At all.

He wanted more than mediocre anonymous sex. God, he probably was the age now where he wanted to have a date. He wanted to be wined and dined before sucking dick.

Or maybe he was just delusional and needed a real good fuck that made him forget his name and ache for a dick

Yeah.

That was more like it.

He wanted mindblowing sex and nothing deeper.

So he was picky.

Big deal.

And not available in this almost perfect life right now.

He could live with that. He _had_ to live with that. He’d come around eventually. The _men_ would.

So for now, he shouldn't feel like he was missing something. Because he wasn’t.

All was well.

* * *

“Are you fucking shitting me?!”

He was barely awake, only a few sips of coffee in his system, and enjoying his morning routine of watching the news when he’d seen movement out of the corner of his eye. Something orange was on his balcony, on top of his jardiniers. That cat belonging to his stupid neighbor — the one he’d only seen three times in all the months he’d been living here —was sitting in it, and to his horror, obviously pissing and now scraping in the soilsending Kylo’s freshly planted flowers flying. Kylo got up from the couch with so much force he moved the whole couch table, his mug flying to the ground, not breaking but staining the small carpet he’d put under the table. 

“You fucking asshole, get down from there!” he yelled after opening the balcony door. He startled the cat and it almost fell down from the balcony. But instead of falling down, it clawed into the jardinier, ripped it down and they both crashed onto the floor. It hissed and then jumped over to the balcony of Kylo’s neighbor with an impressive leap. Kylo snarled and had half the mind to jump after it, so he could throttle it. 

“You stupid fucking —”

“What is going on here?” A sharp voice interrupted his rant, and Kylo was confronted with his neighbor, who stepped out of his apartment, and onto his balcony. He was dressed perfectly. Suit and tie in impeccable order. And it was barely seven in the morning. When did that guy get up to be ready like that? Did he _sleep_ in that outfit?

“Your cat is going on. She’s sabotaging my plants by fucking shitting and pissing on them,” Kylo said angrily. 

His neighbor — Hux — looked at him unimpressed and crossed his arms. 

“Last I heard, dung is a good fertilizer.” He looked behind Kylo, who still had one foot on the handrail to leap over to his balcony and follow the cat, and inspected the sad excuse of a balcony garden that Kylo had. “But that doesn’t seem to help you much.”

Kylo could feel the tips of his ears go red.

“That’s because it fucking pulls out everything I plant,” he snarled.

“She,” his neighbor said, actually picking up his distressed cat and hugging the little monster. 

“What?”

“She. Not ‘it’. She’s a lady.”

“Well, keep your damn lady off my balcony, or you’ll know my wrath.”

“Yeah? You want to sue me because my cat likes to take a walk on your balcony? Complain? To whom? This is a condo. There’s nothing you can do. It’s in my right to have a cat and let her out.”

“Well, how about _I_ take a shit on _your_ flowers?” Kylo snapped, clearly talking nonsense now, but he was angry at the pretentious asshole, thinking it was his right to let that stupid animal out and for it to traipse about shitting in the neighbor’s garden. It was annoying enough that Kylo sometimes heard her yowl on the weekend when her owner clearly wasn’t there and she was bored or whatever shit was going on in a cat’s mind.

Hux looked taken aback, then disgusted, and he took a step back, clutching his cat as if Kylo would jump right over and do it right now.

“You. This is. Horrible. You animal.”

“No, _you_ keep your animal in check. If I see her on my balcony again, I’m going to toss her off the balcony. Fucking hell, I’m not paying for that filthy thing to ruin my garden,” Kylo said, slowly away from the handrail. He stared Hux down, walking backwards and only looking away when he felt the door against his back. He went inside, slid the door closed with a forceful tug and spotted the stained spot of coffee on his rug. He groaned, kicked the coffee table and his fruit bowl slid across it, falling down and managing to break his mug , which was still lying on the floor, in half. 

“Fuck this,” Kylo sighed, crouching down to pick up the bowl and put the pears back inside. He picked up the two broken pieces of the mug and thought about glueing them back together. But getting the right glue after work and then sitting down to actually do it — he knew he wouldn’t. His infamous motivational speeches didn’t work on himself. He knew he’d just go for a run after work, then take a nice shower while waiting for the delivery service of the day, and then he’d lie down on the sofa, eat, watch tv and probably fall asleep right there. Even such a small task as gluing something together seemed like too much.

The two broken pieces landed in the trash and Kylo filled a travel mug with coffee so he could go and change into a reasonable outfit for work and get his caffeine intake on the way.

The day was rather stressful. A patient had managed to break Kylo’s table in his sheer rage and Kylo had to call the cops because he’d been threatened and didn’t want to lose his license because of breaking his patient’s jaw or something. 

Officer Boyega had given him a look of pity because it hadn’t been the first time Kylo had to call the cops on a patient because his fool-proof method did not work and they hoped to get their violent rage out on their therapist instead. 

Kylo swore his method was great. Maybe he just needed to change his teaching method.

Ugh.

He didn’t want to think about work as soon as he stepped over his apartment’s threshold, so he didn’t. He banished every little thought about it, called speed dial number three — the Thai place — and slipped out of his shoes, his jacket, and his slacks, unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it away. He stared at the floor and then made himself fall forward. He landed on his hands gracefully, in a perfect plank, and started doing push-ups. He didn’t count, just let his body move up and down mindlessly until the doorbell with his food rang a good 20 minutes later. He sighed, got up, shook out his arms and stretched them after buzzing the delivery guy up. He paid him as usual, just in his underwear and socks and had his usual feast on the couch after a quick shower.

He was slowly growing back into his evening zen state when he’d reached the dessert that was always in his delivery when he saw it out of the corner of his eye again. 

Orange.

He put his food down onto the table with more care than the coffee that morning and ran over to his balcony door. He ripped it open, stepped out and — nothing.

“What.”

He looked around, even turning on the balcony light and looked around. But there was no cat there. He even leaned over his handrail to peer onto his neighbor’s balcony. But the cat really wasn’t there. No reason to grab her and push her down, or slap her against Hux’s front door or something.

Maybe he was a bit too tired, still irritated from the morning, emotionally compromised from his confrontation with his patient and he was looking for his own outlet. Looking for an orange asshole cat to kick off a balcony. 

He sighed, looked one last time, and when he didn’t see anything or anyone, he stepped back into his apartment and closed the door. The cat couldn’t have been there anyway. Usually, around this time he’d hear his rude neighbor make disgusting cooing noises at the cat or talk in a sweet voice to her in general. Yeah, now he knew that Hux was talking to his cat. Sometimes, he’d lain in bed already and had heard his neighbor mutter in a soft voice to somebody. He’d always wondered how boring the sex must be because he couldn’t even hear slapping of skin or the creaking of a bed. Not that he _wanted_ to hear that. But he’d always wondered what kind of freak this guy was, having those soft mumblings in the late evening.

Talking to his cat. 

Fucking pathetic.

He shook his head after concluding that Hux mustn’t even be at the apartment because of the lack of voices and noises. He shouldn't think about his idiot neighbor. Not before bed. He didn’t want any more stress in his life and thinking about him and his cat definitely caused stress.

So he put away the boxes of his takeaway and went to the bathroom to use the toilet, brush his teeth and turn in for the night.

When he lay in bed ten minutes later, he lazily pumped his cock up and down but couldn’t find the right headspace for a nice masturbating session. The day went through his mind again and again; the terrible morning, the mediocre lunch (the cookies had raisins, what the hell) and then his afternoon appointment that had turned into a cop call once again. And now he was hallucinating fat orange cats that took shits in his flowers.

He sighed, let go of his cock and turned to the side, punching his pillow for good measure before closing his eyes.

He really needed a fuck that left him boneless and pass out for solid eight hours in the aftermath. Grindr had been a huge disappointment in that particular area and Kylo had given up after a while. And he was too lazy to look up fucks or potential dates the classic way.

Ain’t nobody had time for that.

He sighed again, closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind, space out and think of nothing...which resulted in thinking of orange, orange, orange and pathetic jaredniers that screamed at him that he had no green thumb at all. 

Eventually, he fell into a slumber though, his mind wandering from orange fur to orange hair, someone faceless kneading his back, _massaging_ it. And the faceless man with orange hair was peppering wet kisses onto the back of his neck, started to purr…

Kylo’s eyes snapped open before he could fall into his desired deep sleep. He jolted out of it with a start and reached out to put on his night lamp. He turned around to look at his bed and saw that stupid cat, lying there, next to him, her paws outstretched. She actually looked offended that he had moved and her purring sounded like a small engine. 

“What the hell. What are you doing here?” Kylo asked loudly. The cat yawned, stretched and rolled herself into a ball, realizing that the warm back of Kylo wasn’t returning any time soon. Because Kylo had jumped out of the bed, was now standing next to it, all sleepiness gone in an instant. “What the fuck, get out of here. The hell are you doing here? How did you get in? The doors are closed, what…”

She closed her eyes and Kylo made a face, bit his lower lip and then crawled over the bed to grab her. 

Which was a mistake because the cat wasn’t very cuddly anymore, feeling offended that his hands touched her belly and she was _not_ in the mood for a belly rub. She yowled, managed to bite into his hand and pushed to get away from his grip, leaving one giant scratch on his forearm which started to burn like a motherfucker immediately. 

“Fuck!” he cried out and looked at the angry red mark on his skin. The cat had bolted from his bed and he could see her run out of the bedroom. He groaned, jumped from the bed too and ran after her. 

What followed was an idiotic chase, the death of his beloved lava lamp when he crashed against it while taking a leap to grab her, and the end of another mug that had been on the kitchen counter and had fallen down onto the floor when the cat had jumped on it and then up onto the top of his kitchen cabinet. Kylo had no idea how she even managed to squeeze between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling because she was fat and the space rather narrow.

“Come down here, what the hell? Why aren’t you over there with your stupid owner?”

He didn’t see anything, nor did he hear anything. He briefly wondered if she was slowly suffocating up there. 

“God, I’m too tired for this shit,” he muttered and grabbed one of the chairs to climb onto it. He could stretch easily to stick his hand into the crack. He really should have known better because his injured hand came away with a second scratch. And there was a hiss from somewhere.

This couldn’t be happening. He tried again with oven mittens protecting his hands but he couldn’t quite grasp her. 

Frustrated, he climbed down from the chair and walked into his bedroom to put on the pajama pants he’d conveniently forgotten earlier. He then walked out of his apartment and to Hux’s front door. He rang the doorbell three times and when no answer came, he pounded his fist against the wooden door but nothing happened. Nothing but apartment 4B opening the door opposite of him and telling him to shut the fuck up or he’d call the police.

Yeah.

His neighbors really were lovely. 

Kylo was tempted to give him the middle finger, but he didn’t, because he should do better than him. He didn’t say anything, looked at the door frustratedly and returned back into his apartment. He went to his kitchen, stared up at the cabinet and when he climbed onto the chair again there was a growl audible. Still up there.

“Well, fuck you too. I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing here but your fucking owner isn’t here it seems. If you’re looking for food you’re fucking mistaken. So get the fuck out of my apartment.”

Nothing.

“You know what? Fuck you. I’m going to leave my balcony door open and you’ll get the fuck out of here after you’ve calmed down. And if I find new shit in my flowers tomorrow I’m going to hang your stupid fur on his door because I will have skinned you.”

Still nothing.

Kylo looked at the microwave clock and saw that it was ten minutes after one in the morning. He did not want to deal with this any further.

So he just let the cat where she was, did open the balcony door a bit, wide enough so that the fat belly would fit through, and waltzed back into the bedroom. He threw himself into the bed, tossed and turned for a few minutes, thinking about the cat in his kitchen and if she could open doors and would eat his food, or even worse, take a shit in it. She looked like a mean asshole who would do it. First his flowers, then his cornflakes.

It was difficult falling asleep because he was so anxious about the cat and he wanted to kill his neighbor for somehow fucking off for the night and leaving a window open or whatever. 

Why was she coming here anyway? Hux had been gone out for nights before. Kylo never had gotten a visit from her. Nor had he seen her anywhere close to his windows or his balcony. Why now? Did she think he had even better flowers here that she could defile?

At two in the morning his bladder had filled up with his rage, and he had to get up to use the toilet again, being more awake than sleepy. He actually checked the kitchen again after washing his hands and when he’d grabbed the chair again, feeling up the top of his cabinet, he couldn’t feel her fur anymore. Nor did he hear a hiss or a growl.

He looked for her in the living room but couldn’t find her. 

Certain that she was gone now, he closed his balcony door again, feeling lighter than before, and returned back to his bedroom. Just to be sure, he looked under his bed but couldn’t see her. She really must have gone out again.

Fucking finally.

He yawned, crawled back to bed and only needed a few minutes to finally fall asleep.

He had a dreamless sleep, no orange man or orange cat in sight in his head, and when his phone alarm woke him up rudely only a few hours later, he didn’t feel relaxed at all. He was fucking tired and had a slight headache because of his lack of sleep. He kept his eyes closed, stretched and found his soft pillow. He buried his nose in it, smiling because he remembered that he was his own boss and he could just cancel any appointment today without any explanation. 

Just a few more minutes, and he’d check his calendar, call everyone and then he’d sleep the whole day and —

His pillow started to purr and Kylo opened his eyes. His pillow usually wasn’t orange. And so warm. And hairy.

“Oh my fucking god,” he groaned and pulled away, rubbing his hand over his face, feeling the hair on his face. Stupid orange hair. “You slept here the whole night? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

She just opened one eye, rather unimpressed and Kylo’s forearm with the scratches tingled. He knew better than trying to grab her now and rubbed his forehead. “Fuck”, he mumbled. “Fuck this, fuck. Please just go.”

She closed her eye and looked like she sighed. And then she looked like she was falling asleep again. Kylo walked over to his bedroom window and opened it wide. “There, your balcony is just around the corner. Just go. _Go!_ ”

Nothing. 

Kylo was tired and felt cranky. He still didn’t want to work and glared at the culprit, the bane of his night’s existence. He wanted to grab her and do what he’d threatened to do to her mere hours ago. Instead, he sat down onto the bed again, stared at his phone blearily and then sent his appointments of the day text messages, not feeling able to speak.

When he was done with that, he put his phone away, screen down and on silent mode and all, and flopped back down onto the bed. He strained his ears but couldn’t hear Hux’s usual morning noises: Rustling, horrible classical music playing, sometimes grunts that Kylo couldn’t decipher. There was none of that audible.

He turned to the cat. “If your owner lies dead in a ditch somewhere, I’m sure as hell not going to adopt you.”

She didn’t react and Kylo fell asleep again, arms and legs stretched out like a starfish. He didn’t hear Hux coming into his apartment only half an hour later, whistling and calling for his cat. He just rolled onto the side in his bed when the cat jumped from his bed immediately and left through the still open bedroom window. His hand just brushed the warm spot she’d left and he sighed in his sleep, sleeping until noon that day.

* * *

Kylo would almost have thought that it had been a weird dream. A cat induced nightmare, but the angry scratchmarks that burned like a motherfucker were a horrible reminder that this had indeed happened. His neighbor’s cat had come by in the middle of the night, had behaved like a little terror, ruined his kitchen and his sleep and had vanished again when Kylo finally had been able to fall asleep.

Now, that he was in the land of the living again, having drunk too much coffee in the later afternoon, he wanted answers. And justice. So naturally, he waltzed over to his front door, opened it and went to Hux’s front door to knock angrily, just like he did hours before. And once again, there wasn’t an answer. At least his other neighbor wasn’t coming out to threaten him again. 

“Hux, open the fucking door, I need to talk to you!” He said through the door, trying the doorbell only to find out that the bell wasn’t working. Hux must have turned it off somehow. Kylo tried it again, but he couldn’t hear a sound, not even faintly when he pressed the button. 

What he _could_ hear though was a soft meow from behind the door and a soft scratching. Kylo reacted immediately. He stalked away from the door and into his apartment again, where he quickly checked if all of his windows were closed because he never wanted to have that plague in his apartment ever again. When he was sure that there was no way for the orange terror to get through some accidental opened doors or windows, he could relax again and sat down onto his sofa. If this guy really was home and just ignored Kylo’s knocks, he really was a fucker. Kylo just wanted to talk to him about his cat again. Tell him he should fucking move into a house with a garden so his damn cat would shit there and could bother other neighbors. 

He shook his head because as he told his patients, there was no use holding onto such grudges and some people were just giant assholes and losing your nerves over it wasn’t worth it. 

So he was just about to let it go, walked to his bedroom to strip the sheets off of it because there had been an ugly cat sleeping in it. He was in the midst of stuffing everything together in one giant heap of laundry when he could hear a cough and a sneeze from the other side of the wall. 

“Are you serious?” Kylo yelled through the wall, pounding against it with his bare fist. “You just don’t want to fucking open the door for me? I need to talk to you, and you just ignore me?”

The answer was a deathly silence again and Kylo could feel his blood boil in his veins. He wanted to walk over there again and kick Hux’s door in, shake him a bit and yell at him about his cat. But he had such a nice saving money plan figured out, he couldn’t pay for a broken door and a broken nose of his neighbor. Because Hux seemed like a guy who surely would sue the shit out of him. He did have certain lawyer vibes actually. Kylo couldn’t be sure. He had no idea what his neighbor did. Apparently ignoring people, staying out of the apartment at weird hours, and only talking to his cat. 

“Just keep your fucking cat in place. I’m not a fucking cat sitter and if she shows up again because you locked her out or whatever, I’m going to put rat poison down everywhere.”

He pressed his ear against the wall to not miss one sound, wondering if Hux would mutter something and he could catch it like that. Instead, there was just another sneeze and Hux speaking loud and clear:

“We’re surrounded by lunatics, Milie.”

Kylo frowned and punched the wall again for good measure. “Fuck you too,” he said in a normal voice and decided to get a stereo or at least speakers for his bedroom. Action, reaction… or something like that. 

Hux was a dick and he didn’t deserve a nice neighbor like Kylo was.

* * *

He never bought that stereo after all. Because he had decided it wasn’t worth it. 

And mainly because the cat didn’t show up anymore. Neither on his balcony, nor in his apartment. 

And whenever he saw Hux in the apartment building, he made sure to greet him obnoxiously and loudly. Hux always looked appalled, scrunched up his nose and very obviously ignored him. 

It wasn’t really satisfying when Hux didn’t react. No mean word, no word at all. Always this looking away and this aura of _I am better than you_. It pissed Kylo off. And he wondered if he was the only one who had such a problem with Hux. 

One day, he asked 4B about Hux when they both met at the waste chute.

“Is Hux going on your nerves like that too?” He asked. “He’s a pasty litte fuck with a huge stick up his ass isn’t he?” 

4B, busy trying to fit an overly large bag in and obviously failing, looked up and asked, “Huh?”

“Hux,” Kylo repeated, putting his trash bag down because it obviously would take a bit longer here. “He’s a dick.”

“Who’s Hux?” 4B asked. 

Kylo raised his eyebrows. He gestured to Hux’s apartment door. “Carrot top? Freckles he’s obviously trying to hide? Always walks around in a suit that doesn’t seem to have orange cat hair on it? Despite having a fat cat? Always presses his lips together in annoyance? Scrunches up his nose in annoyance? Seems to have otherworldly hair products because that orange sirene hair never looks out of place?”

4B stared at him while pushing the door of the chute. They both startled when something obviously broke and his trash finally plummeted down, alongside the door of the chute. 

“You didn’t see that,” 4B said, straightening up again. “Also, doesn’t sound like _he’s_ a dick but you want _his_ dick. Just sayin’”

Kylo was so taken aback by that that he didn’t even find the words to answer. 4B walked back into the apartment, and Kylo was left with his trash bag and the broken waste chute. 

“What the fuck?” He asked. What the fuck was 4B on about? This was so not true. He just had wanted a bit of gossip about Hux and that was what he was getting? He certainly didn’t want that dick. Well, he _did_ want dick but certainly not _that_ one. 

Unbelievable.

“What the hell?”

Kylo started at the sudden voice behind him and turned around. Out of all people, Hux was standing there, holding his own trash bag and as usual, he was wearing a smooth face of annoyance. 

“Why did you break that? What’s wrong with you and your anger issues?”

“ _I_ have anger issues?” Kylo asked, even pointing at himself to prove the ridiculousness. And his innocence. “Dude, do you even know what I am? What my profession is?”

“Being a dumbass who breaks waste chutes?” Hux asked, looking past him into the gorge that was now visible. “I will report you so you’ll have to pay for it.”

“What the fuck, I did _not_ break it!”

“Sure. You like to break things. Do you know how often I hear things break in your apartment? You’ve got issues. And with those issues you’re disturbing me in my concentration, ” Hux said evenly and pushed his trash bag in gracefully. Who the fuck looked graceful while putting away the trash?

Kylo, who didn’t want to admit that he was just a scatterbrain and randomly dropped things on accident instead of throwing them like Hux accused, went into defense mode immediately. 

“Well, then don’t fucking work in your bedroom. Who does that anyway? You don’t work where you sleep. It’s bad for you,” he scoffed at Hux and Hux crossed his arms, standing stock still, staring at Kylo.

 

“And what are you to say this? A psychologist?” Hux asked in a dry voice.

“Well, actually —”

Hux was leaving mid-conversation, letting Kylo stand there like a fool. 

“Do I look like I care?” Hux asked, his back to Kylo. Kylo even could see his fucking cat sitting there on Hux’s threshold, staring at them. 

“I didn’t break this stupid chute, it was 4B!” Kylo said loudly, pointing to the door. Hux stopped at that, looked at the door and then over his shoulder to Kylo. He frowned.

“Nobody even lives there,” he said confidently. “You really are a lunatic.”

Kylo’s mouth opened but he had no idea what to possibly say to that. Millicent looked at him smugly before Hux closed the door and Kylo felt like he was in the wrong movie. The wrong _life_.

He pushed his trash bag into the chute and walked back to his own apartment.

Now that he got to talk to Hux, he didn’t feel satisfied at all. He’d wanted to yell at Hux personally because of his cat but now he just felt confused and a bit scared. For a moment he thought he’d talked to a ghost the whole time, but when he was on the balcony a few minutes later, tending to his plants, he could see 4B walking out of the building, lighting something up that definitely was not a normal cigarette.

Stupid Hux thinking that apartment was empty. Just because he was a shitty neighbor and didn’t know who lived in the house.

He could hear the balcony door of Hux’s apartment and suddenly felt weird. He quickly turned around and went back inside. He didn’t want to deal with Hux. 

And he felt jittery somehow, like he wanted to crawl out of his own skin because whenever he tried to concentrate on doing something else (thinking of new concepts, thinking of new ways to avoid his mother, thinking if he should cut his hair or not) 4B’s words were haunting him.

He did _not_ want Hux’s dick. He wanted _a_ dick. Why the hell would he want his stupid ass neighbor to break his dryspell? He didn’t even know if Hux had sex. He heard all sorts of sounds through the wall, but certainly not creaking of bed strings and moans.

Which was _good_. There was no use in listening in to your neighbor having sex. And Kylo wasn’t so sure about Hux’s sexuality anyway.

 _Why_ was he even thinking about that? It shouldn't concern him. Hux was an asshole. Kylo would never.

Never ever.

So, naturally, Kylo got his ass up for once, since it was a Saturday, and he took a long shower, took care of his hair, got the expensive moisturizing cream for his face and just dressed up nicely for the night. He went to one of his favorite bars, talked to people, drank with people and ended up in a bed that was not his. 

When he returned home it was half past five in the morning, his feet were hurting from dancing too long in the wrong shoes, his ass was also a bit in agony but that was all right. That was what he had wanted. And it had taken his mind off of things quite well. But now, that he was nearing the apartment building, he thought about yesterday again and sighed. Now this would bug his mind forever.

He had expected to catch the doorman of the building asleep or something when he opened the door but what he didn’t expect was to stumble over Hux.

Sweaty Hux.

Panting Hux.

Hux with running clothes, his hair a mess, headphones around his neck that were still blasting music that sounded a lot like AC/DC. And he was chugging down water from a bottle. Kylo stared at his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down and he was so confused as to how Hux could look like that. The few times he’d seen him, the hair had been impeccable, there always had been a dress shirt, and shiny shoes, and slacks. 

This was.

This was _disturbing._

Hux finally noticed him and abruptly stopped drinking. His face went from relaxed to annoyed and Kylo wondered if he’d ever seen him without a wrinkle between his brows or his nose held high.

“What.”

Kylo felt a bit slow. He still couldn’t look away from the loose strand of hair falling into Hux’s forehead. What was going on?

Was this the twilight zone?

“I thought you only leave the house for working and making other people’s lives hell.”

Hux frowned and the bottle cracked a bit because he was gripping it so hard. 

“What do you think I’m doing?” he asked Kylo and Kylo didn’t like how he looked at him, obviously judging Kylo’s outfit and how Kylo was coming home from the walk of shame. Kylo had the urge to reach up and cover the obvious bite mark right under his chin. He’d needed it rough to get his mind off of things.

But if he would cover it now, he would seem weak and as if he was ashamed of anything he’d done the previous night. Which he was not. So to get Hux off track, distracting him from judging Kylo, Kylo said:

“I don’t know? My hard guess is the devil’s advocate. Or maybe a store mannequin what with the stick up your ass and fancy clothes.”

It was funny how shocked Hux was, how his eyes grew comically large for a second before his face grew murderous.

“Just because you walk around in rags all day doesn’t mean, everyone else has to dress like you,” Hux said acidly and Kylo wondered if he’d hit a nerve there.

“Sure,” he said. “Dress to impress because there’s nothing else behind it. Are you even sleeping in a suit? I am impressed you don’t run in one. You would wouldn’t you? If people wouldn’t peg you for a lunatic then,” Kylo said. 

Hux pressed his lips together. “At least I don’t have to dress like _that_ just to get laid.”

Kylo huffed out a laugh. “You wouldn’t be able to rock those clothes, don’t kid yourself.”

“Oh, good morning boys, you’re up early,” they suddenly got interrupted. Miss Kanata from floor two had just stepped out of the elevator. She was kind of nice but once she had you in her clutches she’d talk for hours. About the most boring things. He could see in Hux’s face that Hux had had that experience too already. 

“Yes,” that smooth fucker said. “I just was on my way out for a run.” And then he just turned around, smirked at Kylo when he passed him and walked right out. He didn’t even give a shit that he’d just been running.

Which left Kylo in the foyer with Maz who had the ugliest tiny dog on a leash. Kylo didn’t want to be rude, he still was the new guy in the building, so he asked: “Miss Kanata, you’re up early too.”

“Oh my old boy here always needs to get out for a leak this early. Why don’t you join me? I could use some conversation. And it would be so nice if someone strong would be out there with me, in case something happens. You know?”

Her eyes looked overly large behind her glasses as she stared up at him and Kylo sighed inwardly. 

“Of course, Miss Kanata,” he said and she took his arm with a surprisingly strong grip and started to march off. She was already talking about her dog and one of her grandnieces that would be just _perfect_ for him. Kylo had no idea how often he’d already subtly had told her he preferred dick. But that always seemed to meet deaf ears. And he knew, in fact, that she was not deaf. Because she always knew the juiciest gossip about the neighbors. Never on Hux though. 

“Oh look, Kylo, that coffee shop is already opening and allows dogs. Let’s go in there.”

Kylo really, really wanted to go to bed, preferably sleep on his stomach. 

“Yes, Miss Kanata, it’s my treat.”

“Aww, you’re a good boy, my dear.”

Kylo couldn’t believe that Hux had abandoned him to this. All of this was Hux’s fault. Hux had been closer to her. She would have latched onto him. 

Stupid fucker.

**Author's Note:**

> Come and find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/minzimpression)! and Come and find me on [tumblr](http://minzimpression.tumblr.com)!


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